Snow made travel tough, and more may be on way

DOVER — As snow continued to fall over southern New Hampshire and Maine Sunday afternoon, vehicles continued to slip and slide over and off slick roadways into the evening.

Though no fire or police department reported any serious accidents on Sunday, most reported numerous calls for vehicles that had failed to negotiate the slush covered roads and wound up sliding off to the side.

In one instance, State Police Troop A responded to a school bus where the driver had simply lost control of the unoccupied vehicle just north of Exit 9 on the Spaulding Turnpike.

That accident occurred around 1:20 p.m. and caused oncoming drivers to divert their route into the breakdown lane as the turned bus spanned the width of the turnpike on the northbound side.

There were no injuries reported during that incident.

In Milton, three patients were extricated from a motor vehicle accident between Exits 17 and 18 where ambulances from Frisbie Memorial Hospital and Milton responded to the scene along with rescue crews who employed the Jaws of Life to free the entrapped patients.

Capt. Paul Haas of the Dover Fire Department said there had been a handful of vehicles off the road in the Garrison City, but nothing major that the department had responded to.

He said there were no downed wires or trees and no power outages he was aware of.

However in Rochester, power outages were reported in the area of Care Pharmacy on South Main Street near Frisbie Memorial Hospital.

The fire department reported a number of wires down, though some were cable and telephone wires and not necessarily electrical.

Snow accumulations varied greatly from town to town, with more than a foot tallied in some areas and just a few inches sticking to the ground in others.

Mike Kistner of the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine, said Rochester and Strafford saw some of the highest levels in Strafford County with 14 and 13.5 inches respectively.

Points toward the coast, he said saw smaller amounts while anyplace further inland received a higher snowfall.

This was the second biggest storm of the year as far as widespread totals.

Compared to the Blizzard of 2013, Kistner said this system brought less wind and though snow totals followed a similar pattern, the snow this weekend was far heavier, wet and dense.

“Generally this is the nature of the beast, though, when you get closer to spring,” he said of the type of snow seen over the weekend.

He also said there is possibly more snow on the way midweek.

Wednesday into Thursday could see another significant snowfall, though Kistner said it is still to early to tell what exactly may form.

“The same areas that got mostly rain today could wind up getting the same by midweek,” he said. For other locations, he said his best guess is mostly snow will fall.